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The ASP runs from 2pm to 5pm, Mondays to Thursdays during school terms.The ASP provides school children with a safe, quiet place to do their homework and study.Volunteers are on hand to help the children and to give remedial and extra learning work where necessary.The children also participate in positive, fun activities such as sports, Life Skills groups, Bible Club, games and craft.

Interview with a Volunteer

Desery became a Christian five years ago and attends a church close to the EBC. She started attending the ASP in 2010 when she was in Grade 11; a friend told her about the Program after she complained about not being able to do her schoolwork at home. She continued attending in 2011 and finished school with good results that gained her a place at the Polytechnic to study Accounting. This year she asked to return to ASP – as a volunteer!

Desery leads the ASP children in singing“Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”

How did ASP help you? What did you like about it? “The ASP does a great job keeping children off the streets and so preventing them from being engaged in non-productive activities. It helped give me a place to do my schoolwork and study, this was difficult for me at home. I also got advice on the most effective ways to study and even how to choose a career. The volunteers were so willing to help me and I enjoyed the activities: Bible Club where I got more information on how to serve God, Life Skills that encouraged me to avoid harmful things that can affect my life negatively, and Sports which I really like.”

Why did you want to volunteer at ASP? “I love working with young people as I know the challenges we experience, and from my own experience, I know that ASP is a platform to help young people improve their academic performance, keep away from bad influences in society and, above all, lead them to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What do you like about being a volunteer? Has it benefited you at all? “I don’t only help the children at ASP, they help me! I often have to do research in order to help my class with all their work, this increases my knowledge and benefits my daily life.

Working at ASP also gives me experience in working with young people. The training and teaching we, as volunteers, receive helps me a lot as I am a Sunday School teacher and teenage group leader at my church.

Being involved in the Program also contributes to my own spiritual growth. And at this Program the other workers have become my sisters, brothers and mother, they really help shape me in all areas of my life.

If I were to explain in detail how I’ve benefited from ASP, it would take me forever – my life would be incomplete without ASP!”

ASP News

Tangee finished as Coordinator at the end of 2011, so that he could pursue other opportunities this year.

The new Coordinator, Daniel Mambimbo, was appointed in January and is enjoying the challenge of leadership, after being a volunteer at ASP in 2010 and 2011.

ASP started for the year on 30 January and closed for Term 1 on 19 April. School holidays are long between Terms 1 and 2, the break this year was from 25 April to 29 May.

Eleven volunteers came forward to assist with the Program, and were needed as the children are still attending in large numbers. The average daily attendance was 95 children, and the highest daily attendance was 118 children.

Due to the donation of their Christmas offering, we were able to buy the HBC clients extra food and household supplies for the holidays and festive season.

Home Based Care Program (HBC)

Apart from caring for people living with HIV or AIDS, one of the aims of the HBC is to help our clients to live positive lives.This can mean counselling, assisting with problems or challenges, and encouraging them to take control of their lives and support themselves.

One of our clients, Anna*, was in denial about her HIV status for about a year after our HBC Coordinator, Jogbeth, started talking to her while visiting her cousin. Eventually she became more open to talking about HIV & AIDS and joined the HBC program but still struggled. She would often be out when Jogbeth came to visit her, even if they had agreed on a time. She didn’t tell her family where she was going and came home drunk more than once.

However Anna was encouraged by a friend of hers, also in the HBC program, to attend the Support Group meetings. She told Jogbeth that she would start coming and Jogbeth wondered if she really meant it. But when Jogbeth arrived for the next Support Group meeting, Anna and her friend were already there waiting!

From then on, she has attended every month and her life started changing. She is a big help in the meetings as she speaks four languages and can translate for some of the other members. However, she was also helped. “Seeing other people in the same situation as her, that they can be so open about their status, and the advice they give each other for dealing with problems, really made a big difference for Anna,” Jogbeth shares.

She made sure she was home for Jogbeth’s visits and even asked for a Bible. At each visit she was eager to discuss what she’d been reading in the Bible and ask questions about what she didn’t understand. “She’s now the one who makes sure we meet,” Jogbeth continues, “and if she’s not at home then everyone knows where she is – collecting the children from school or running other errands for the household. And although there have been occasions where she has had a drink, these have been few and far between.”

Recently Anna saw some old foam mattresses lying around and saw an opportunity! She washed the foam and cut it up, then sewed the foam into covers – and suddenly had a business making pillows, which she sells to community members. She now gets supplies from one of the mattress factories and regular demand ensures a steady business for her.

And the next step? Possibly training others in the Support Group and making it an income-generating scheme…stay tuned…

*not her real name

HBC News & Prayer Points

At the beginning of the year the number of clients almost doubled, there are now 39 clients in Windhoek and 7 clients outside Windhoek. The average attendance at the Support Group has been 13 clients.

·Praise God for progress we see in the clients; specifically a reduction in dependency and a desire to do more for themselves.

·Praise God for the improvement we have seen in the social issues that affect our clients, particularly alcohol abuse and destructive relationships.

·Pray for disclosure issues affecting the children in our Program, the best way and time to talk about their status and/or the status of their parents or guardians.

·Pray for the Coordinator, Jogbeth, and three of the volunteers – Aline, Olga and Panii – who are all studying for a diploma in HIV&AIDS Management & Counselling, requiring regular submission of assignments and mid- and end-of-year exams.

Donations

In January we received a box full of hand-knitted “Trauma Teddies” from Australia. These were distributed to the children in the HBC program and also to some of the ASP children.

Children in the HBC program couldn’t hide their delight when they were given a teddy bear. For some, this is the first toy they have ever had.

Thanks must also go to our regular donors, who continue to provide funds for our activities: